We took a 19 hour bus ride from Santa Marta, Colombia to Caracas Venezuela. Just a few hours after we left Santa Marta our bus was pulled over by Colombian police officers. They came on the bus speaking in Spanish asking people to do something that we couldn't understand. Some people started to get off the bus which made us very confused. We happened to be the only non-Spanish speaking people on the entire bus, so there was no one to translate for us. Eventually we understood that the police were saying "keys" to us. They wanted all of us to get of the bus, line up and give them the keys to unlock our luggage that was under the bus. The whole situation was a little frightening! After all, in the movies when people line up outside a bus after being randomly pulled over by "police" officers... it never ends well. Luckily everything was legit, it was a random search and they opened up mostly everyone's bags for a few seconds then closed them up. Unfortunately... Andrew and I carry HUGE backpacks, and at this point were practically bursting at the seams. Our clothes and 6 bags of coffee were packed in bags within our packs so intricataely that one disruption could cause the bag to never close again! The police officer unzipped Andrew's side zip and pulled out a bag of clothes to check... then had to stuff it back in somehow. When he got to my pack, he took one look at it... and changed his mind about trying to open it up. After that point everything went pretty smoothly until we reached Venezuela.
I would firstly like to say that I do not understand enough about Venezuela to begin to explain to you about their policies, money or government. I can only tell you my experiences of when I was there. So here are a few stories...
We had heard many things about Caracas, mostly concerning security. Even our guide books warned that security in Caracas is no joke, and all precautions should be taken. Luckily for Andrew and I, Ruben took us under his wing and showed us around. We only had a short amount of time there, and because of Ruben we were able to see so much more than what we would have on our own. We decided not to stay in a "budget hotel" as they often are located in dangerous areas and often can be "love motels". We decided to splurge and stay at a good hotel, located outside the downtown core in Altamira. Altamira is considered a "safe" area, and you can walk around generally without any problems.
We had heard from many sources that you should carry American Dollars to Venezuela because the offical exchange rate is so poor and money can easily be exchanged on the "grey" market. Usually we do not condone or partake in illegal activities in foreign countries, but apparently everyone does this out of necessity. The offical exchange is 2:1 but on the grey market you can get 6:1. Now if you were to do the legal exchange of money, or withdraw from a ATM you could never afford anything there, as everything is priced at the grey market exchange. A combo at Wendy's was 40.00 (Venezuela money) if exchanged by a bank it would be roughly $20.00 US. We have heard that the locals can only use X amount of American money legally per year outside the country, which makes them have to seek other illegal ways to get money.
Another weird thing that happened was when trying to make contact with Ruben I sent numerous emails from Colombia... all were either bounced back to my email or never reached him. Finally I decided to send a copy to my Uncle in Canada to get him to try to forward it to Ruben in Venezuela... mysteriously he got the email. We have learned that the government now owns the telecomumications company that is his internet service provider.
Houses and businessess were like mini fortressess, with barb wire, electric fences, bars on doors and windows etc. Even stopping at red lights could be potentially dangerous. When we went in the car with Ruben we never stopped at red lights... only slowed and turned off our lights to see if any light beams were on the crossing street, if not, we went right through the lights.
We had a nice time during our short stay in Caracas. It is always interesting to us to see how other people live in other country's. We got to ride a cable car to the top of a mountain that is located in the city. It was the longest cable car that we have ever seen, and I have heard it's the longest in the world. I can't say my eyes were open the entire time.
We also give many thanks to Ruben and his family who so kindly took time to show us around and treat us with amazing hospitality.
Click on picture below to see the album in Picasa.
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| Caracas, Venezuela |
~Nicola
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